Phytochemical constituents are distributed in various parts of plants and their localization is indicative of their therapeutic properties. Ergastic crystals such as calcium oxalate crystals are also found in almost all plant parts, which is an anti-nutrient as the dietary oxalates contributes to human ailments. Several of the medicinally useful plants contain these crystals and consumption of such plant materials in raw form can cause health problems in humans. Ergastic crystals can be an important diagnostic tool for the identification of raw drug as in Costus pictus a medicinal spiral ginger commonly called Insulin plant is devoid of cuboidal crystal but its related Costus speciosus leaves possess characteristic cuboidal shaped crystal in its leaf mesophyll. Gene manipulation technology may be promising in removing such deleterious genes or introduction of altered bio-chemicals to nullify such effects for the future generation.
Acanthaceae and scrophulariaceae of the series bicarpellatae belong to the order personals. Order personales is characterized by features such as herbaceous or shrubby habit plants are mostly herbs, under shrubs, simple leave, irregular hypogynous flowers, stamens epipetalous, less than the number of corolla lobes. The fruits are usually simple capsules. Acanthaceae is an interesting and a variable family. Being the third largest tropical family, it occupies seventh position in the order of dominance in India. This clearly indicates the complexity and diversity of the family, which comprises about 250 genera and 2,500 species (Willies, 1973). The members of the family are concentrated in the tropical parts of the world, while some extend to the temperate regions. The four main centres of distribution are Africa, Central America, Brazil and Indo-Malaysia. In India, it is represented by about 49 genera and over 500 species
Podostemaceae family is well known as a group of aquatic angiosperms with enigmatic characters. The present work was performed to trace ecological aspects, phenology, water analysis and phylogenetic analysis of the genus Zeylanidium, in order to establish the uniqueness of the species in the fresh water habitats S-1 (9.9559˚N, 76.8339˚E) and S-2 (10.0538˚N, 76.8294˚E). Through water analysis it is revealed that the species of plants could be used as an indicator of pollution as they are present in very sensitive area of running fresh water. The phenology of the taxa understudy paved light to the co-existence of Zeylanidium maheshwari and Zeylanidium lichenoides. The data on comparison of molecular and phylogenic tree reveal that the species are highly related genetically for a sustainable coexistence.
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